Jeremy Lin Hints at Retirement After He Didn't Receive NBA Contract This Season
May 19, 2021
Jeremy Lin may have hinted at retirement Tuesday evening.
Giving a brief overview of his season and expressing his disappointment after not being offered a deal to return to the NBA after joining the G League, the former New York Knicks star said he has no regrets and continues to hold his head high:
Lin, 32, gave up an opportunity to continue starring in the Chinese Basketball Association this year to attempt an NBA comeback. That eventually saw him land with the Santa Cruz Warriors, where he averaged 19.8 points, 6.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game in nine games.
He wrote that May 16 was "the final deadline" in his mind to be called up to the NBA.
"For months I saw others get contracts, chances, opportunities," Lin wrote of his time in the G League. "I told myself I just need ONE ten-day contract, one chance to get back on the floor and I would blow it out of the water. After all, that's how my entire career started."
Lin explained that he's had "an NBA career beyond my wildest dreams" while expressing regret he was unable to do more to break barriers for Asian American basketball players.
Lin, the league's first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent, last played in the NBA during a short stint with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 before moving onto the CBA the following year to join the Beijing Ducks. The deal paid him a reported $3 million per season.
He was able to come back to the United States to play, narrowly missing the deadline to obtain a clearance waiver that would've allowed him to join the G League in December. The NBA then amended its rules to allow NBA teams to designate one veteran player to its G League team, allowing the Golden State Warriors to sign Lin and assign him to Santa Cruz.
Lin, who went undrafted out of Harvard in 2010, averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists over 25.5 minutes per night in 480 games. He made NBA stops with the Warriors, Knicks, Rockets, Lakers, Hornets, Nets, Hawks and Raptors and won a title with Toronto in 2019.